A milestone: Windows 8 market share passes Vista

Those who don’t care for the dramatic interface changes Microsoft brought to Windows 8 often liken the newest OS to Windows Vista. As was the case with Vista, Microsoft saw Windows 8 as a rethinking and reinvention of its flagship operating system.

But many of its users see it as a hot mess.

Regardless, Windows 8 is Microsoft’s current offering, found on most new PCs. Its growth in usage is inevitable, and in June Win8 hit the dubious milestone of having more market share than Vista.

That’s according to Net Market Share, which tracks usage of operating systems and Web browsers based on the tracks these platforms leave when they visit websites. While the numbers don’t reflect the entire universe of systems – those that don’t access the Web aren’t counted – the company’s numbers are considered a reasonable snapshot of what’s in use.

In June, Windows 8 gained .83 percent to hit 5.1 percent share of the OS market, making it No. 3 among Windows OSes. No. 1 is Windows 7 at 44.37 percent, followed by Windows XP, still creaking along at 37.17 percent. Vista is now at 4.62.

Window 8′s gains come at the expense of all other versions of Windows, including Windows 7, which declined by .38 percent from May to June.

Although Win8′s 5.1 percent share is modest, it is higher than the current version of Mac OS X, Mountain Lion, which stands at 3.14 percent.

Overall, Windows has a 91.51 share of the desktop OS market, while OS X has 7.2 percent. Linux has a paltry 1.28 percent.

Net Market Share also tracks mobile operating systems, and here iOS dominates, with 57.56 percent in June, down from 59.49 in May. Android was at 24.66 percent, up slightly from 24.4 percent in May. Windows phone also had a slight increase at 1.33 percent, up from 1.21 percent.

Keep in mind that the iOS numbers include iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads. There may be more Android smartphones out there, but Apple dominates in non-phone media players and tablets. In addition, iOS users are known to be more active consumers of Web services than users of other platforms.